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Thanks to decades of successful Republican spin, Democrats are often perceived as insufficiently tough on America's enemies and averse to the use of military force. George H.W. Bush's mocking of candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988 — "I wouldn't be surprised if he thought a naval exercise was something you find in Jane Fonda's workout book" — is not so different from Mitt Romney's warning about candidate Obama in 2008 — that if he had to confront al-Qaida, he "would retreat and declare defeat."

And it was only last year that foreign policy maven Sarah Palin decreed on Facebook that the terrorist threat calls for a commander in chief, not a professor. Yet we have barely heard a word from Palin, or from most of her party brethren, since it became clear that as a war-on-terror president, Obama has more in common with Tony Soprano than with Mr. Chips.

Obama is launching many such drones without seeking the permission of the host countries, much less apologizing for them. In his first two years, he authorized four times as many drones as George W. Bush did during his entire second term.

Which is why the traditional Republican rhetoric — such as Rudy "9/11" Giuliani's warning that a Democratic president would endanger America by "going on defense" — now seems as outmoded as the audiocassette.

Yet even though Obama has erased that GOP story line by "making his bones" on national security (as Tony Soprano might put it), he can't seem to nudge his poll numbers northward. That's clearly because voters are far more focused on economic insecurity.

It speaks volumes about the zeitgeist that although Obama defies the Democratic stereotype — the latest Washington Post-ABC News survey found 62 percent of Americans, and nearly that share of independents, like the way he has handled terrorism — he scores a dismal 43 percent job approval rating. At this point, most people seem fine with his leadership abroad, but they feel he hasn't led effectively at home, where the threat of job loss or foreclosure seems more real than that of al-Qaida.

Obama has been so hawkish on terrorism as to shrug off the critics (notably the ACLU and other civil libertarians) who questioned his targeting of American citizens. Awlaki, born in New Mexico and educated in Washington, was put on a government hit list last year, and when his father went to court to get him removed, Obama's lawyers got the judge to dump the case. The Fifth Amendment guarantees due process for U.S. citizens, but Obama clearly has no problems acting as judge, jury, and executioner in certain cases. And most Americans seem fine with that.

Given the current domestic distress, however, that's not the kind of strength they're looking for. Although most people believe Obama has kept us safe from terrorists, they think he's weak at home. In a CNN poll last month, 52 percent said he isn't "a strong and decisive leader." That's partly because he keeps getting rolled by congressional Republicans, but it's mostly because he is perceived as irresolute on fixing the economy.

Altering that perception is crucial to his re-election prospects. It would be ironic indeed if a Democratic president ran afoul of the electorate not for being insufficiently forceful abroad, but for his weakness on the kitchen-table issues long perceived as Democratic strengths.